The present invention is a hydrosilation process where a silicon hydride is reacted with an unsaturated reactant in the presence of a platinum catalyst and an unsaturated ketone accelerator. The unsaturated ketone accelerators are especially useful for the hydrosilation of unsaturated reactants where the unsaturation is in the internal portion of the compound's structure, for example, as in cyclopentene and cyclohexene. The unsaturated ketone accelerators are effective in the absence of oxygen activation of the platinum catalyst and are synergetic with oxygen activation of platinum catalyst.
It is known in the art to produce organosilicon compounds by reacting a silicon hydride containing compound with an unsaturated organic compound in the presence of a catalyst. This reaction is typically referred to as hydrosilation or hydrosilylation. Typically the catalyst is platinum metal on a support, a platinum compound generally in a solvent, or a platinum complex.
In Speier et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,823,218, a method for the production of organosilicon compounds by reacting an Si-H with a compound containing aliphatic carbon atoms linked by multiple bonds in the presence of chloroplatinic acid is taught. Lamoreaux, U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,972, teaches a similar process, however the catalyst is a reaction product of chloroplatinic acid.
One of the major problems known in the art with hydrosilation reactions is the de-activation of the catalyst prior to the completion of the reaction. One method for reactivation of the catalyst has been to expose the reaction mixture to oxygen. For example, Onopchenko et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,578,497, teaches the use of an oxygenated platinum containing catalyst for use in hydrosilating alkylsilanes. Kleyer et al., EP Patent Application No. 0533170A1, discloses a method for controlling hydrosilation reaction mixtures by controlling the solution concentration of oxygen in the reaction mixture, relative to the platinum present in the reaction mixture.
In addition to the problem of de-activation of the platinum catalyst, hydrosilation processes taught in the art are not particularly effective in hydrosilating internal unsaturated bonds in organic molecules. The present inventors have unexpectly discovered that unsaturated ketones can act as accelerators for platinum catalyzed hydrosilation processes. The unsaturated ketone accelerators can improve yield of the process in the presence or absence of oxygen and are particularly effective in facilitating the hydrosilation of internal unsaturated bonds of organic molecules.